Impacts of game attractiveness and color of message on sport viewers' attention to prosocial message: an eye-tracking study

Purpose – Recently, neurophysiological tools have been popularly utilized in sport marketing research. Among them, eye tracking, a pervasive sensor technology, has received a growing interest to examine the effects of advertising through sport on viewer attention. While there is a plethora of evidence in advertising that supports the positive effects of various advertising types and locations on viewer attention in various sport contexts, little is known about the role of a prosocial overlay advertisement on viewer attention when watching televised football matches. 

Design/methodology/approach – To identify the research gap, we first reviewed the relevant sport marketing and neuroscience research on advertising effectiveness. We selected a prosocial message displayed on an overlay signage as an advertising format during a football match. Adopting a quasi-experimental research design, the participants’ attention to the prosocial messages was measured using eye-tracking technology (pupil model) in a laboratory.

Findings – We found that the colors of prosocial messages and game attractiveness had significant effects on viewer attention to the prosocial message.

Originality/value – In this study, we seek to add advertisement color, as well as game attractiveness to the extant knowledge in marketing literature as effective advertising factors in capturing viewers’ attention. These variables can offer marketers new insights in designing effective advertisements for the context of televised sports events in a specialized field.